Fremont Michigan Insuracorp(FMMH) issued a terse statement today acknowledging receipt of a letter from Sardar Biglari, CEO of Biglari Holdings(BH) earlier this week, proposing to buy all shares of Fremont that Biglari Holdings does not own for $29 per share. Fremont stated that it has asked a Special Committee of the Board to evaluate the offer, and that… Read More »
Last year, before engaging in a prolonged exercise(still not complete) in executive compensation, Bilgari Holdings(BH) made a $24.50 cash and stock bid for Fremont Michigan(FMMH). The bid was almost immediately rejected by Fremont, which then lobbied successfully to have a Michigan law passed making a transaction far more difficult. After many months of silence, Biglari Holdings made public… Read More »
From the just-filed 13D The original purpose of the purchases of the Shares, all of which occurred more than 30 years ago, was to increase the ultimate control by Blue Chip of Wesco. On August 25, 2010, Berkshire’s management determined to propose to Wesco a cash-stock election transaction in which it would acquire the remaining 19.9% of the shares… Read More »
Image via Wikipedia Federal Reserve Board Statement from February 7,1929, as quoted by Galbraith in The Great Crash 1929 When [the Board] funds that conditions are arising which obstruct the Federal reserve banks in the effective discharge of their functions of so managing the credit facilities of the Federal reserve system as to accommodate commerce and business, it… Read More »
Image via Wikipedia It’s 2AM. Your stubble-covered face glows in dim light of the casino floor. Lights flash, bells ring. You’re about to get lucky. And you run out of cash. Enter Global Cash Access(GCA). GCA has contracts with many of the nation’s largest casinos to provide ATM services on their floors. GCA provides other cash services as… Read More »
We at Inelegant Investor are pleased to announce the initial launch of stockspinoffs.com. Stock Spinoffs will be a clearinghouse for information on upcoming and proposed stock spinoffs, featuring a calendar of upcoming events, as well as news and analysis of each spinoff. We have chosen to launch this after being asked several times where this information could be… Read More »
It’s July 23, 2000. The Bubble has burst, though bottoms haven’t been reached. The World Trade Center still stands tall. Enron is one of the world’s most respected companies. The New York Times declares Hank Greenberg a better investor than Warren Buffett. As the article points out, over the previous 5 and 10 year periods, AIG had substantially… Read More »
We are pleased to welcome you to the 175th Edition of the Festival Of Stocks. The Festival Of Stocks is a blog carnival dedicated to featuring posts on a variety of stock market topics. Though the Inelegant Investor has published only sporadically of late, we were a frequent participant in early Festivals Of Stocks, including the first edition.… Read More »
Image via Wikipedia Steak N Shake(SNS) has posted the annual letter from Chairman Sardar Biglari. Biglari has made great progress with the company since taking over, swinging from a loss of $23 million in 2008 to a profit of $6 million in 2009. The capital structure has been greatly strengthened. After beginning the year with just $6.9 million… Read More »
Image by Getty Images via Daylife For years, Warren Buffett has spoken of searching for an elephant of a transaction. Berkshire Hathaway’s(BRKA,BRKB) announcement today that it will be acquiring Burlington Northern Santa Fe(BNI) in a $44 Billion deal represents the final capture of an elephant that has been in Buffet’s sights for several years as Berkshire has consistently… Read More »